WASHINGTON — New York City’s elected Democratic district attorneys are bending over backwards to keep illegal immigrants in the US, instructing prosecutors to downgrade charges to those considered “a non-deportable offense,” according to a stunning House Judiciary Committee report shared with The Post.
The GOP-led panel found that Bronx DA Darcel Clark trains her subordinates “to conceal facts from the record of conviction” and “pursue alternative charges” that would keep non-citizens free to roam in America.
Not even cases involving child sex crimes are off-limits — with Clark’s office asking assistant DAs in a 2019 guide to “immigration-conscious plea bargaining” to “[o]ffer something that does not have the child’s age as an element of the crime.”
Meanwhile, in Queens, DA Melinda Katz has told her prosecutors to “exercise extreme caution” and “not get caught up in the label of [f]elonies, [m]isdemeanors” for illegal aliens, according to the report published five months after the committee sent requests for information on the Big Apple’s so-called “sanctuary” policies to prosecutor’s offices in all five boroughs, as well as the NYPD and Department of Correction.
Those policies have had deadly consequences, as in the case of a 92-year-old Queens woman who was murdered by a Guyanese migrant, Reeaz Khan, after a federal detainer was lodged against him in 2020.
Katz’s office later secured a 22 years to life sentence against Khan.
The report found versions of the practice in every borough. The Brooklyn DA’s office has explicitly sought an “immigration-neutral” disposition since 2017, having staff trained “to avoid disproportionate collateral consequence, such as deportation, while maintaining public safety.”
In some cases, prosecutors in Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez’s office are instructed to offer “a plea for a lesser offense in light of the disproportionate immigration consequences a higher level offense may result in.”
Staten Island DA Michael McMahon has a whole unit dedicated to asking ICE to delay deportations.
But Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office told the committee his once-expansive immigration policy is “outdated,” while admitting prosecutors still consider citizenship status on a case-by-case basis.
In 2022, Bragg had issued a memo to prosecutors requesting that they “seek dispositions that avoid immigration consequences for all misdemeanors, and all felonies for which non-carceral outcomes are the presumptive outcome.”
“When did protecting a criminal’s immigration status become a part of a DA’s job description?” asked New York City Council Member Joann Ariola.
“Our DA’s are entrusted with upholding the law and protecting the public,” Ariola told The Post. “If that’s not their priority, then they’ve got it backwards.”
According to the report, the NYPD has received nearly 10,000 detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for illegal aliens charged with crimes in the past 12 months — and honored none.
The Department of Homeland Security revealed earlier this month that 16,070 detainer requests had been ignored by authorities across the Empire State, which, like New York City, doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration officials as a sanctuary jurisdiction.
In a report authored by Katz’s office last year, the Queens DA was confirmed to employ an “immigration specialist,” whose sole purpose is helping assistant DAs “navigate through plea options and assist in framing dispositions that will prevent unwanted immigration consequences.”
In 2020 alone, the “immigration specialist” helped get 21 convictions reduced or thrown out entirely. In six cases, Katz urged then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant a pardon to prevent deportation.
Bronx DA Clark has also bragged that since 2020, “[p]rosecutors in my office must thoughtfully consider employment, immigration, family unification, and the broad range of other potential collateral consequences when initiating a prosecution.”
The House Judiciary Committee obtained office training materials from March 2023 titled “Crimmigration,” in which Bronx prosecutors were explicitly told to, “[a]s appropriate,” “strive to ensure that a conviction for certain offenses does not lead to unintended and severe consequences such as deportation that can tear families apart and destabilize communities.”
Screenshots of the “Immigration-Conscious Plea Bargaining” training from 2019 reproduced in the report also revealed that prosecutors were urged to “Offer a Non-Deportable Offense” for defendants to consider copping to.
Those training materials further suggest that prosecutors should consider pursuing charges for so-called “legally impossible” offenses — when a defendant believes they are committing a crime, but actually are not — because “[l]egally impossible crimes cannot serve as the basis for [immigration] removal proceedings” when appealed in the US federal court system.
The legal impossibilities often have a defendant being accused of having “two contradictory mental states … at the same time,” per the report.
In cases involving weapons offenses, Bronx prosecutors are instructed in training materials to “[k]eep the firearm out of the record of conviction” and “[o]ffer something that does not specify a firearm” in plea bargaining.
Accused wife-beaters get the same treatment. Prosecutors are told to “[k]eep the domestic relationship out of the record of conviction.” In stalking cases, they’re encouraged to offer a charge without “repeated instances or an intent to instill fear.”
Republicans argue this practice carries consequences beyond immigration court, and the same omissions that keep a defendant off ICE’s radar can keep him out of sight of law enforcement as well.
In Queens, the approach shows up in practice, not just in training. In a May 26 email obtained by the committee, an assistant DA in Katz’s office told a NYPD detective the office had “basically made a [plea] deal which is ‘immigration safe,’” assuring them that the defendant still pleaded guilty to multiple crimes and spent time behind bars.
Ken Frydman, a Democratic operative and also a police union rep, said, “Immigration specialists typically help immigrants navigate the immigration process, not help get convictions reduced or thrown out in order to keep illegal immigrants in the US.”
According to the Judiciary Committee, Katz spurned the committee’s initial May request, arguing state prosecutions fall outside Congress’ oversight jurisdiction.
She relented only after Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) sent a second letter in August warning they might issue a subpoena.
Reps for the Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan DA’s offices didn’t respond to requests for comment.
